Archive for 2017
November 29, 2017
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: The Conflicting Dogmas of the Liberal Clerisy. “What modern liberals believe instead is that a clerisy, an educated elite that favors personal autonomy and open-mindedness and fairness, should write the rules for everybody else. Today’s liberal elite do not look backward for their authority—there are no scriptures and no inviolable traditions in modern liberalism. They look to the future. The rules issuing from the modern liberal clerisy are thought to be the latest manifestation of moral progress, to which educated people must adhere if they wish to be thought of as good people.”
BECAUSE “THE RESISTANCE” IS A BUNCH OF CHILDISH JERKS: Why Is the ‘Resistance’ Harassing This Man? FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and his family endure a season of hatred.
Speaking of crossing lines, unhinged critics on Twitter have attacked Mr. Pai’s Indian heritage and wished death by AIDS and cancer upon him and his family. Mr. Pai’s Chief of Staff, Matthew Berry, has posted some of the appalling messages.
According to Variety, Mr. Pai’s wife “has received threatening messages at her workplace, according to an FCC source.” April Glaser has more in Slate:
It wasn’t the first time that activists apparently showed up near his home. Menacing, handwritten signs also appeared in Pai’s local neighborhood, including one that named his children and the question, “How will they ever look you in the eye again?” In May, in what appeared to be a coordinated campaign by the advocacy group Popular Resistance, people left flyers on Pai’s neighbors’ doors that included his picture, age, and weight. Unfortunately, such attacks aren’t new to Pai, who has endured a steady stream of racist, lewd, and threatening backlash since April, when he introduced his intention to gut the net neutrality rules. . . .
As irresponsible as such language is, it’s also ridiculous. The resisters are casting as a fundamental free speech right what was essentially a gift to tech lobbyists. Companies like Netflix, which by some measures generates more than a third of all North American Internet traffic, and Google, which also generates significant traffic via its YouTube video service, didn’t want to pay market rates to companies like Verizon for moving that traffic. Essentially, Silicon Valley wanted to cut its phone bill and it persuaded President Obama to instruct his supposedly independent telecom regulators to make it happen.
They told me if Trump were elected, racist mobs would harass minority members and government officials who were just trying to stand up to corporate looting. And they were right!
GEORGE KORDA: Don’t be silenced by ‘whataboutism’ silencing tactic.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Beyond the CCW Pistol: Four Factors of Survival.
BuzzFeed missed its earnings by 20% and YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!
AYN RAND DIDN’T WRITE THE RETURN OF THE PRIMITIVE AS A HOW-TO GUIDE: Jewish Groups Demand Poland Explain Naked Game of Tag in Nazi Gas Chamber. After learning 2015 video was shot in the Stutthof death camp in Poland, groups representing Holocaust survivors pen letter to country’s president asking who gave permission.
2017 WINDING DOWN THE YEAR IN STYLE: Goat head topper stolen from San Jose Satanist group’s Christmas tree.
LESS-THAN-SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: 6 percent of cancers caused by excess weight, diabetes. And ultimately, I suspect, from too much sugar intake.
JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC) DEFENDS JOHN CONYERS (D-MI): Hey, unlike Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose, he was elected. “You don’t often see arrogant power displayed as grossly as that in front of a camera. Kathleen Rice, the first House Democrat to call for Conyers to step down, walked out of a Democratic caucus meeting this morning because she knows a sham when she sees one.”
VARIETY’S ARTICLE ON MATT LAUER DROPS:
As the co-host of NBC’s “Today,” Matt Lauer once gave a colleague a sex toy as a present. It included an explicit note about how he wanted to use it on her, which left her mortified.
On another day, he summoned a different female employee to his office, and then dropped his pants, showing her his penis. After the employee declined to do anything, visibly shaken, he reprimanded her for not engaging in a sexual act.
He would sometimes quiz female producers about who they’d slept with, offering to trade names. And he loved to engage in a crass quiz game with men and women in the office: “fuck, marry or kill,” in which he would identify the female co-hosts that he’d most like to sleep with.
These accounts of Lauer’s behavior at NBC are the result of a two-month investigation by Variety, with dozens of interviews with current and former staffers. Variety has talked to three women who identified themselves as victims of sexual harassment by Lauer, and their stories have been corroborated by friends or colleagues that they told at the time. They have asked for now to remain unnamed, fearing professional repercussions.
On Wednesday, NBC announced that Lauer was fired from “Today.” It was a stunning move for a co-host who was widely considered the crown jewel of the network’s news division, with a $25 million annual salary.
I’d add the standard “read the whole thing” ending, but we’ve read this article so many times in the past couple of months each new one feels like boilerplate. However, a related piece is well worth your time — Jonah Goldberg on “Matt Lauer, Fox News, and How Tribalism Affects the Press:”
When the allegations about Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes came out, the mainstream media had a field day. But there was no larger feeding frenzy. Last year it was a “Fox News” story, not a “societal problem” story. It took the Harvey Weinstein allegations to get the mainstream press to start asking uncomfortable questions about its own institutions. I can think of several reasons for this, but one that stands out is the tribalism of media itself.
Read the whole thing for its look at elites on both sides of the aisle, particularly if these poll numbers remain accurate:
WHAT IS BEST IN LIFE, DONALD? “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, hear the lamentation of their women.”
REVIEW: 2017 Mercedes-Benz S-class.
WELL, SO MUCH FOR MERELY THINKING OF THE GRAY LADY AS A DEMOCRATIC ACTIVIST WITH BYLINES. In 2004, Daniel Okrent, then the ombudsman of the New York Times wrote the following headline and lede:
● THE PUBLIC EDITOR; Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper? OF course it is.
The Times today? You have no idea how liberal we are. As NewsBusters notes, “Crossing a Line? NYT Opinion Page Encourages Readers to Call Senators to Defeat Tax Bill.”
Numerous additional examples of the Times recommending their readers pressure Republican senators at Twitchy, as the Times goes from opinion to straight-up anti-GOP activism.
Oh, and file this one in the “past performance is no guarantee of future results” category:
AT AMAZON, Hot New Releases – Updated Every Hour.
THERE ARE CERTAIN SECTIONS OF THE STRIP, MOHAMMED, I WOULDN’T ADVISE YOU TO TRY TO INVADE: ISIS Teases Vegas in Upcoming Sequel to Original Film Threatening America.
21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Lidar Just Got Way Better—But It’s Still Too Expensive for Your Car.
THERE IS A LOT OF RUIN IN A NATION, STILL:
Not many people had lost any sleep awaiting the announcement.